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SNEC Newsletter
2022-09-15
SNEC President’s Message
Dear Friends and Colleagues, I am humbled and privileged to assume the role of President of SNEC. I am grateful to my predecessor, Christopher McDowell for his leadership and contributions to SNEC during his presidency, and the members of the Executive Committee and Board. I have been inspired by their commitment to SNEC and all of their achievements and I look forward to continuing the chapters work by encouraging the exchange of information by members of the Society. I recognize that times have been challenging on us all, as we continue to navigate a world surround by COVID and subvariants, and for some, adjusting to a return to office work policy. I hope you and your families continue to stay safe, well and healthy! This June provided a sense of relief and normalcy for our chapter, with our first SNEC in person summer meeting in over 2 years! This meeting had excellent presentations that highlighted current research being done throughout the region, and provided an opportunity to network and connect in person with each other. Thank you to those in attendance! For many of us, spring and summer is an exciting time. It is the start of field season, and a chance for us to leave our homes and offices for more exciting work on the water or in the field! This spring, for me, involved leading a gillnet offshore wind fisheries monitoring survey south of Rhode Island. Working with commercial fishermen, we set large-mesh gillnets from April-June to capture monkfish and winter skate. This sampling is conducted to assess the seasonal abundance, and distribution of monkfish and winter skate for two years prior to construction and installation of offshore wind turbines. Living on Cape Cod is always a busy time especially during the summer! For most, summers on Cape Cod mean lots of beach days and sunshine, family vacations, boat rides, ferries to the Vineyard, looking for great white sharks, lobster rolls, and a whole heck of traffic! But for me, it means spending time with friends and family, kayak fishing for scup, seabass and striped bass, supporting local businesses, eating ice cream, and filling my belly with seasonal and local seafood! I hope you each have a wonderful and safe summer, and I encourage you to stop and enjoy the diversity of local seafood that is available this time of year. In closing, I hope as President I will continue to support and encourage participation from fishery stakeholders at our meetings, and give them a space to share their wisdom and background on various fisheries related issues, so that as scientists we can work together towards more sustainable and effective solutions. In addition, I hope to continue DEI efforts currently underway by the chapter and national society to create a more inclusive community for our membership. Feel free to reach out to me, the Executive Committee, or Board of Directors if you have ideas or would like to get involved.
Aubrey Ellertson
President, Southern New England Chapter of AFS

Figure 1 – SNEC President Aubrey Ellertson in the field
Announcements
Congratulations to our very own Dr. Alex Haro for receiving the Fish Passage Conference’s Career Achievement Reward for influential contributions to the field of fish passage that have enhanced fisheries resources. This award is given in consideration of his length of service with the USGS, contributions to the field of fish passage, imagination and innovation, outreach activities, support for interdisciplinary efforts, and leadership.
Check out the SNEC website for the most up to date meeting on our January 2023 joint meeting with the Northeast Division in Boston The theme of the meeting will be Diadromous Fishes: New Tools, New Findings, New Hope
The SNEC Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) discussion group meets on the third Thursday of every month from 2 PM - 3 PM via Zoom. We’d love to see you at our next meeting on September 15th. For more information, please email Abigail Archer
We now have a website for back issues of the newsletter. Check it out here
Calling all ecosystem analysts: The Northeast Fisheries Science Center Plankton Dataset from the Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf is freely available online here. Plankton data can help us: estimate how many fish were in an area to spawn, see how populations are shifting or changing their habitat due to environment change and other stressors, and understand the state of our marine ecosystems. The NEFSC collects, maintains, and makes available the most comprehensive plankton dataset for the Northeast U.S. shelf and surrounding areas.
Member Submitted Content
Pond Science in the Classroom
What human activities on land are impacting our waters?
The Dennis Conservation Land Trust (DCLT) spent an enjoyable few weeks this past month with 30 Dennis-Yarmouth High (D-Y) students in Carl DePuy’s Ecology Class conducting microcosm experiments.

Figure 2 - Dennis-Yarmouth students conducting microcosm experiments with DCLT
The goal of the DCLT’s multi-year “Water Initiative” project, which includes some students working in the field on DCLT lands this summer, is for participants (both youth and adults) to get real science experiences and come to understand the ways in which our activities on land can impact the waters upon which all Cape Codders depend.
The DCLT thanks supporters of our Water Initiative - Cape Cod Five, Cape Cod Foundation, and the Horizon Foundation - as well as UConn’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies for donated equipment.
For the full photo gallery, check out DCLT on Instagram
Mass DMF Partners with Commercial Fishermen to Monitor Low Dissolved Oxygen in Cape Cod Bay
During late summer 2019 and 2020, bottom waters in southern Cape Cod Bay (CCB) became depleted of dissolved oxygen (DO). Bottom DO levels became severely hypoxic (<2mg/L) in water depths from 10 to 25 m (~30–80 ft) from west of the Cape Cod Canal east to Barnstable Harbor. In mid-September 2019, there were numerous reports of dead lobsters and scallops from the local fishing community indicating that DO levels had dropped to lethal levels in this region. In response to this unprecedented event, DMF began working with other scientists and the local lobster fleet to begin to understand what was driving hypoxia in southern CCB. As part of this effort the Massachusetts Lobster Foundation, in collaboration with DMF, created the Cape Cod Bay Study Fleet, which has provided oxygen probes to a number of lobster fishers in the region. These small probes are deployed in lobster pots and provide near real-time measurements of bottom DO. The goal of this program is to monitor bottom DO throughout CCB and alert the public when low DO conditions begin to develop.
Read the full story here…
Check out some graphical representations of the data here…

Figure 4 – A dissolved oxygen probe installed on a lobster trap

Figure 5 – A Deck Data Hub (Lowell Instruments LLC., Falmouth, MA) allows fishermen to see the dissolved oxygen and temperature data collected on their gear and transmits data back to scientists at DMF and NOAA in near real time
Pictures from the field

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